I first came across Brian Turner's poems in 'Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and their Families'. Then I went and bought 'Here, Bullet' his book of poems from his year in Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Most of the poems were written during his time overseas. I was immediately impressed. Then I had the chance to pose a question to Brian Turner when he appeared on an online Q&A with the NYT. Below the fold you'll find his poem Eulogy as well as the question and answer.
Eulogy
It happens on a Monday, at 11:20 A.M.,
as tower guards eat sandwiches
and seagulls drift by on the Tigris river,
Prisoners tilt their heads to the west
though burlap sacks and duct tape blind them.
The sound reverberates down concertina coils
the way piano wire thrums when given slack.
And it happens like this on a blue day of sun,
when Private Miller pulls the trigger
to take brass and fire into his mouth:
the sound lifts the birds up off the water,
a mongoose pauses under the orange trees,
and nothing can stop it now, no matter what
blur of motion surrounds him, no matter what voices
crackle over the radio in static confusion,
because if only for this moment the earth is stilled,
and Private Miller has found what low hush there is
down in the eucalyptus shade, there by the river.
PFC B. Miller
(1980 - March 22, 2004)
::
Q&A
Philadelphia, Pa:
Last fall I was at a gathering on Maryland's Eastern Shore to eat and celebrate rockfish. It was outdoors, with fire pits and beer and later in the evening a "spoken word." Granted, the majority of readings were about fishing and "the rockfish". But I choose to read four of your poems - A Soldier's Arabic, What Every Soldier Should Know, Kirkuk Oilfield and Where the Telemetries End. I received a rather cool response (maybe it was my delivery), but several people came up afterwards to say they understood or appreciated the readings. Majority of the crowd were in their 20's and 30's but some in their 40's and 50's. On the whole, and based on your experience do you find people expressing a certain apathy about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Brian Turner:
Thanks for reading my work and for sharing it. That's an honor.
Hmmm...I'm, to be honest, very troubled by our country at the moment. It seems that the journalist's narrative has reached a point of stasis--news from the wars overseas basically remain the same. That doesn't keep people's attention (and maybe doesn't help in selling advertising spots?). The news lately is: our wallet; the economy. This is understandable, but disturbing.
I've said this before and I'll repeat it here...I think it's a decadent society that can bury so many in the earth and displace so many from their homes and yet know relatively nothing about them. Shouldn't we know the people we bury in the earth? And if we don't, and we don't really try--what does that say about us, as a culture, as a people?
I travel to many college campuses around the country and I hear, to be honest, so very little debate about the war(s). Afghanistan isn't even talked about at all, it seems.
Thanks again for sharing my work and for trying to create a dialogue.